Angel of Death by Lydia Hub (elon musk reading list txt) 📕

foot hits the ground gold and black streaks appear on the fabric, they flit around my shoe in intricate patterns. Tiny sparks fly off the fabric every now and then but the disappear quickly.
“These are amazing.” I whisper.
“They’re my best work.” She says proudly.
“I love them.”
“Good, you’ll be wearing them almost every day.” She says smiling at me. Just then Octavius busts through the door, a stack of papers in his hands.
“Come on Emma, it’s time for training.”
“Coming Octa.” I say, tearing my eyes away from my sneakers.
“What did you just call me?” He asks leaning toward me, I can’t tell if he’s upset or not.
“Um... Octa.” I say timidly.
“Okay.” He says with a laugh.
“What? Octavius is a mouthful!” I say my moment of worry passing quickly.
“I like it.” Anissa says laughing too.
“I don’t have time to argue with you, let’s go.” He says laughing again.

My shoes light up the dark halls each time I take a step and sometimes I catch myself staring at them. At one point Octavius stops and I walk into him. When we get to the training center Octavius has me stand alone in a dark room. When I stick out my arms I leave the room is actually a closet or at least it’s the size of a closet.
“Ready?” Octavius calls to me.
“Ready, Octa.” I yell back. Suddenly the door opens and I’m momentarily blinded by the light. I stumble out into the room and wait for my eyes to adjust. When they finally door I see that I am not alone, there is a teen-age girl tied to a chair in the middle of the other wise empty room. She looks about sixteen and her ginger hair is wet from looks like tears.
“Please. I didn’t mean to.” She whimpers to me as I step towards her suddenly feeling a strong pull. Like she’s a magnet and I’m made of metal.
“Do what?” I ask genuinely confused.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask taking another step.
“I didn’t mean to kill him, I didn’t mean to.”
“Kill who?”
“Barry!” She snaps, like I’m the dumbs person in the world. “He was hurting Jim.” She cries becoming a sweet again.
“Umm... okay.” I say unsure of what to do. “What’s your name?”
“Kelsey.”
“Emma!” Octavius’ voice cracks through the room. “Your job is not to make friends!”
“What is my job?” I scream back, utterly frustrated.
“You’re suppose to kill me.” Kelsey whispers, fat tears roll down her cheeks.
“What?” I freeze, horrified by the thought of killing her. “4,5,1,20,8. Death.” I whisper finally figuring it out.
“All you have to do is touch her.” Octavius says through the speaker.
“I can’t kill her!” I scream sitting down on the cold, white tile floor.
“She killed someone!” Octavius screams back.
“I don’t care if she killed a hundred people, the answers no!” I say starting to cry. A door opens slowly on one of the walls and Octavius enters the room.
“It gets easier over time.” He says pressing his finger to her hand. Her eyes fluter shut and her body relaxes under the ropes.

We walk back to my room in silence, the only sound is our shoes on the hard-wood floors. When we get to my room Octavius tells me to change back into my robe and to be ready for diner in two hours. I do as he says, reluctantly taking off my new coat. After I change I flop down on my bed and just lay for awhile. I stay there for about five minutes before I get bored and head into the halls. I go in the direction of the fitting room and Anissa. When I arrive I find her sitting on the floor with a stack of fabric in front of her.
“Anissa.” I say stepping into the room.
“Back so soon.” She answers cheerfully.
“This morning when you got upset at Octavius did you know I was going to have to kill people?” I ask coldly. She remains silent, playing with a piece of purple fabric. “Did you?” I demand, glaring at her.
“Yes.” She whispers, squirming under my glare.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I cry.
“I don’t know.”
“Yes you do! Don’t lie to me!”
“I wanted you to be as happy as long as possible. I knew that when you found out you would be destroyed and I wanted to postpone that as long as possible. You remind me of my daughter and when I look at you all I want to do is protect you. Can’t you understand that?” She starts to cry. Suddenly I’m sickened by myself for yelling at her and I run from the room.

By the time I get to my room tears are streaming down my face. When I get to my door I see Fisher standing a few doors down. He’s standing in front of an open door pointing in my direction. After a minute his steps away from the door and walks towards me.
“You okay?” He asks his face taking on a concerned look.
“I’m fine.” I say trying to step into my room, Fisher grabs my arm and pulls me into his room.
“Talk.” He commands, sitting me on his couch. I remain silent. “Fine, I will.” He says taking a seat on his bed. “So, I spent the whole day wandering around the woods looking for this girl and when I finally found her, she asked more questions that you.” He says laughing. I just glare at him. “What’s wrong with you?”
“I have to kill people.” I answer flatly.
“Oh, you got ‘Angle of Death’.” He pauses waiting for me to respond, when I don’t he continues. “Well at least you get to leave The Middle Ground.”
“What?”
“You get to leave The Middle Ground.” He repeats
“What’s The Middle Ground?” I ask leaning forward.
“This is The Middle Ground, people with certain jobs get to leave during the day. You, being the Angle of Death, get to leave, because, as you have pointed out many times, you can’t kill anyone here, we’re already dead.”
“Why am I the Angle of Death?”
“Simple, you killed yourself without a relatively good reason.” He sounds bored when he says this.
“What are you?” I ask my sadness forgotten.
“I’m a guide. I lead people from the clearing to, well here.” He grabs the ball off the table and bounces it off the ceiling.
“Why are you a guide?”
“Because I had a reason, well a better reason than you anyway.”
“What was your reason?”
“My fiance died in a car accident the day after I proposed to her.” He says, holding the ball in his hands.
“Well, I should go.” I say standing up.
“What? Why?” I sits up.
“I should shower before diner.” I say opening the door.
“Okay, I’ll meet you in that hall in half and hour.” He yells as I shut my door.

After my shower I open my door and a girl with strait, blond hair stumbles forwards. I step to the side as she falls back onto her butt, a small smile creeps onto my face.
“I told you not to lean on that door.” Fisher says coming out of his room.
“Who are you? I say helping her up.
“I’m Brittany.” She says smiling.
“She’s the one that got lost in the woods.” Fisher says.
“You’re never going to let me forget, that are you?” She says laughing.
“Nope.” He says smiling at her.
“Well, let’s go to dinner.” I say, walking towards the dining hall.

When we get to the dining hall Brittany’s face takes on a disgusted look. She eyes a bowl of purple mush that someone else is eating.
“What is that?” She asks.
“Dinner.” I say flatly.
“Gross.” She groans as Fisher and I sit down at a table.
“Get over it.” I mumble.
“What?” She says looking up from her mush.
“Nothing.” Fisher glares at me so I look down. I quickly choke down my food and stand to leave. “Bye.”
“Where are you going?” Fisher says looking away from Brittany.
“I need to talk to Anissa.” I say walking away.

When I get to the fitting room the door is shut and locked. I knock on the door but there’s no answer. Soon I find myself pounding on the door with both hands.
“Anissa!” I scream, throwing myself against the door. “Anissa!”
“What?” She says opening the door.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry I yelled at you!” I say crying.
“Okay. Calm down.” She says.
“I shouldn’t have yelled at you.” I whisper.
“Every one adjusts in their own way.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Apology excepted.” She says. “Curfews in five minutes, you should go.” She says shutting the door.
“Okay.” I say to the door.

As I walk towards my door Fisher steps out of his room and blocks my path. I try to step around him but the hall is to small. When I try to push him out of they way he doesn’t even sway under my best efforts.
“What do you want?” I say finally giving up.
“Why don’t you want to talk to me?” He says crossing his arms over his chest.
“Who said I don’t want to talk to you?”
“I can I kinda tell by the way you acted tonight.” He says angrily.
“I have training in the morning.” I say try to step past him again.
“Why are you mad at me?” He snaps.
“I’m not mad at you!” I snap back. “Get out of my way!”
“Not till you tell me why you’re mad.”
“Well, we’re going to be standing here for a long time.”
“Why won’t you tell me?” Fisher yells.
“Wow, anger issues?” I say leaning against the wall.
“Is every thing okay?” Brittany’s voice comes from some where behind Fisher.
“We’re fine.” Fisher says turning around to face her. I take this opportunity to step around him. He sticks his foot in my doorway before I can get the door shut. “We’re not done here.”
“I think we are.” I say, slamming the door as hard as I can on his foot. He doesn’t even flinch.
“Why did you do that?”
“Leave me alone.” I say walking away from the door.
“No.” He says flatly.
“You sure every things okay?” Brittany says poking her head around Fisher to look at me.
“I don’t know how your fiance put up with you.” I say, ignoring Brittany. Fisher steps backwards, anger flashes across his face.
“Don’t you dare talk about her!” He yells knocking over the table next to my door. “Don’t even talk about her!” He says taking another step back. “You,” He says poking his finger at me. “You have no right to talk about her! You didn’t even know her!” He yells, smashing his fist through my wall.
“Good night.” Brittany says quietly running back to her room.
“What was that? Don’t smash my wall!”
“Don’t talk about Grace!” He spits. Suddenly all my anger disappears and I regret yelling at him.
“Was that her name?” I ask softly.
“Yes.”
“Pretty.”
“I know.” He says smiling.
“What was she like?” I asks, sitting down on my couch. Fisher follows, sitting down next to me.
“Amazing.” He says still whispering.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For yelling at you, for bringing her into our fight.”
“Don’t be, I shouldn’t have bugged you.”
“It’s okay.” We sit in silence for a few minutes.
“Sorry about your wall.”
“I’ll make sure Octavius knows it was your fault.” He laughs.
“Yeah.” He says laughing again.